Tag: advice

My Freshman Year of College: The Truth

My freshman year gave me more than new friends and knowledge–  it also helped me find a passion. I was able to fuel my interest in helping those in need around me. I was able to spend a lot of my time giving back to my community and it fulfilled me. It was also nice being able to be around other people who loved to volunteer as well because you should always surround yourself with positive influences.

A few weeks ago, I officially finished my freshman year of college, and it was great.

Now that’s not a phrase I ever imagined myself saying. Mostly because I’m a first generation college student and even though I’ve always known that I wanted to be a college student, I was never entirely sure if it was an achievable goal for me. I don’t come from a necessarily prosperous family and I didn’t really have much guidance when it came to choosing which college would be my future home, but I went with my gut and decided to go to a college that was three hours away from my home in a town that I had never even visited before.

So, it’s safe to say that I was petrified when I first walked onto that campus. I only had one friend, I was unsure of my major, and I was gut-wrenchingly homesick within the matter of hours. On my first day of orientation, I actually locked myself into the communal bathroom in my hall and cried for fifteen minutes just because I was so unsure if I was meant to be a college student.

I didn’t understand so many things, like dorm etiquette and how to get my roommate to like me and what is the best way to buy text books and should I get involved in clubs and if so which clubs should I join and there were just— so many questions that I was too terrified to ask anyone because I was too embarrassed to own up to the fact that I was not nearly as well-versed in the intricate workings of college like how everyone else appeared to be. I missed my friends, my family, my dog. I missed having the security of being at home.

And I stayed that way for, I don’t know, the first few weeks? The feeling of homesickness was just so difficult to get rid of. And I was so upset with myself for not being happier at college because I worked so hard to get where I was and then for a while I wasn’t even that secure in my decision. I wanted to talk to someone about how lost I felt, but I was too ashamed. I didn’t want people to see that I wasn’t as strong as I had let on.

But then, I hit a point where I decided to stop wallowing in the feeling of homesickness and take the leap to do more than go to college and actually enjoy college. I stopped spending all of my time in my room and made myself branch out. I went to the events that were held for freshmen to make us feel more welcome, and I asked around to see which clubs people recommended. I ended up being intrigued into joining two different organizations: a leadership club for freshmen and a sorority.

Joining these two different organizations changed my college experience in ways that I can’t explain. I surrounded myself with people who pushed me to be better versions of myself. They motivated me to do community service, meet new people, and maintain my GPA. The mixture of these clubs also helped me meet people from all across campus and even get familiar with the new city I was living in. I found myself in a new community filled with so many loving, passionate people who have so much greatness destined for them that it made me feel like I was destined for greatness too.

I still got homesick at times, and I even had a few close loved ones pass away over the course of my first semester. But since I branched out and formed close relationships on campus, I was able to find people to lean on during the hard times.

If I didn’t have them, I would have definitely dropped out after my first midterms. And not even because I had bad grades or anything, but because I would have still felt so miserably alone and homesick.

My freshman year gave me more than new friends and knowledge–  it also helped me find a passion. I was able to fuel my interest in helping those in need around me. I was able to spend a lot of my time giving back to my community and it fulfilled me. It was also nice being able to be around other people who loved to volunteer as well because you should always surround yourself with positive influences.

And these positive influences helped me push myself during my second semester. I found the confidence to run for positions in both of my organizations and ended up getting places in both. I was able to help more with community service in my sorority and somehow was given the position of president of my leadership club. I tried to set a good example to others during that second semester and push everyone else to get involved too because of how rewarding the experience can be. I found myself realizing how much I have grown as a leader and just as a person in general during my first year at college, and I realized I wanted to help others grow too.

During this time, I also had a few other experiences like trying sushi and going to an art museum and just living life with less fear than I had before college. I went from a girl who was terrified of living the simple comfort of her home in the country to a woman that was embracing all of the possibilities the city had to offer. I knew that I was changing, and for the first time in my life I wasn’t scared of the change.

I feel like college pushed me in so many ways to want to do more, to be more, and I wouldn’t trade that for anything. I made so many new lifelong friends, challenged my old mindsets, and grew as a leader in ways I cannot describe. I know that I had a rough patch in the start, but I wouldn’t trade my college experience for anything.

And I can only hope that my sophomore year of college is just as amazing as this year.

I hope that you enjoyed this little journal entry of sorts. Feel free to share what your college experience was like! Be sure to like, comment, and follow! 

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Are Your Friends Good For You?

Toxic friendships are hard to spot, because it is often difficult to be able to take a step back and realize that the relationship you have with someone is being mentally harmful to you. So, how are you supposed to decide when friendships are toxic? 

Friends, they come in different shapes, sizes– and dynamics.

We all have friends. But, not every friendship is the same. There are the friendships where your counterpart knows every secret that you own, and then there are the ones where you never delve far beneath the surface of formalities. And one of these types of friendships aren’t necessarily superior to the other, because we all need different types of friendships at different times in our lives. But, there is a type of friendship that you should try to avoid at all costs: and that is a toxic friendship.

And toxic friendships are hard to spot, because it is often difficult to be able to take a step back and realize that the relationship you have with someone is being mentally harmful to you. So, how are you supposed to decide when friendships are toxic?

First off, you can decide if a friendship is good for you or not by thinking about how you feel after spending time with them. If a being around a certain friend consistently makes you feel anxious or upset with yourself, then they’re probably not a good friend. If your friend is mentally tearing you down or treats you in a certain way that makes you feel less confident in yourself, then that is just simply someone you should not keep around in your life if you have the option. Life is a short adventure, so don’t waste your time on someone that will make you stop appreciating the beauty of it. If you can’t make yourself enjoy the time you spend a friend, then why continue to spend time with them?

Another sign that a friendship might be toxic is if you have an intense amount of competition with them. A bit of friendly competition is okay, seeing as it can push you to expand your limits and work to become a better version of yourself. But, when the friendship becomes entirely centered on besting them and always trying to be one step ahead of your friend, then it is no longer healthy. It’s not really a friendship if the only time you put energy into the relationship is to try to be better than the other. Especially because if you let this become a full-blown rivalry but you end up needing a shoulder to lean on, the chance of that friend taking anything you confide to them to use against you is extremely likely.

Speaking of a friendship that is bordering on becoming frenemies, you should also think about being careful befriending someone that you feel resentment towards. If you find yourself being close with someone that you want to talk badly about after they leave the room– don’t. Don’t be that friend who is slightly two-faced because if you want to gossip harshly about your supposed friend, then the people who witness you act that way will not want to trust you as a friend either. Anyways, if you don’t genuinely enjoy being friends with someone, then don’t be. You know that you don’t want to have a toxic friendship in your life, so you should also make the effort to not be the toxic friend either.

Overall, friendships should be something that have a positive impact in your life. The friendship does not have to be deep and soul-bearing, and you don’t even have to love the unconditionally. But you should want to smile when you think of your friend. A good friend doesn’t tear you down, and you shouldn’t want to tear that friend down either. Life can be crazy and unpredictable, and you want to have a good friendship that you can rely on. They might not be perfect, but if a friendship makes you happy then it is most definitely worth it. Just make sure that the friendship is actually good for you.

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Thanks for reading, please like, comment, and follow!

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My Summer Bucket List

During summertime, you become consumed with this need to do something, whether it be to take risks and go adventures or maybe just start a diet and work out more often. I feel like everyone feels kind of restless during the summer, so it is important to have a kind of outline of what you wish to accomplish during this period of time when the sky is the limit.

There’s something so special about summer. Maybe it’s the fresh air, the flowers in full bloom, or the warm weather– but there is something so specifically thrilling about this certain time that sparks a new life into your soul. During summertime, you become consumed with this need to do something, whether it be to take risks and go adventures or maybe just start a diet and work out more often. I feel like everyone feels kind of restless during the summer, so it is important to have a kind of outline of what you wish to accomplish during this period of time when the sky is the limit.

And personally, there are several things that I want to do during this summer, so I decided to write down all of the adventures that I hope to take part of this summer. Here are just a few of the things that I hope to do over the next few months.

 1. Eat healthier and work out more

I feel like this is on everyone’s bucket list. Which, why shouldn’t it be? If you have a desire to live a healthier lifestyle, then why not try to aspire to do so? I mean, knowing me, I’m definitely not gonna follow through. But hey, at least I took the initiative to add it my list, right? I feel like I deserve a gold star or something for taking that step.

2. Get a tan

Again, this is another basic thing everyone aspires to do over the summer. I feel like there should be some sort of scientific study conducted to see why people are so much happier when they get a tan. I personally believe it’s because my skin is as white as Elmer’s Glue and it is always a welcome change to not have your skin instantly reflect any ounce of light that it comes in contact with.

But, I do have to state that while I’ll try to attempt to cross this off of my bucket list, I will most definitely get a sunburn and then, without a doubt, will complain relentlessly about the sunburn until it fades into a tan.

3. Revamp my wardrobe 

Honestly, I’m getting tired of wearing the same clothes that I’ve had since middle school. Especially since I’m not in high school anymore and dress codes no longer exist, I personally feel like I should take this opportunity and buy as many rompers as my basic white girl heart desires.

4. Have a photoshoot with a friend

A little hardly-known fact about me is that I’m that friend that is obsessed with pictures. If we are ever at any type of event, I will without a doubt take a thousand pictures of you in different places and poses because I love to make my friends feel beautiful. I’ve always wanted to have a little photoshoot just for fun and because I love taking pictures, and I feel like this would be a great way to spend some quality time with a pal.

5. Make some crafts 

Okay, so you know when you’re scrolling through Instagram or Facebook and you start by looking at all of the updates on your friends’ lives and then suddenly you’re watching the fiftieth DIY about how to make a wreath out of a hoola hoop and some twine? Well, after doing this at least a thousand times, I feel like I should probably set a goal to do at least now craft over the summer. Especially because I find crafting to be super calming.

And yes, I completely understand that this goal makes me sound like a soccer mom.

6. Go to the mountains

My favorite place in the world is the mountains. It’s so breathtakingly beautiful up there and the fact that you automatically lose service once you get up high enough makes you connect with the serene beauty around you in a way that is just so freeing. The certain mountains that I love to visit also happens to have several amazing restaurants and museums that are some of my favorite places to go when on a trip. If you want to know more about what I do when I visit the mountains, I’ll more than likely make a blog about it once I visit, so stay tuned!

7.Visit some friends from college

College has blessed me with meeting some of the most amazing and genuine souls in my life, I know that I haven’t known these new people for that long, but being in a close proximity to them 24/7 for months has kind of spoiled me with being able to see them at any given moment. My life became so dependent on these people that were complete strangers less than a year ago and I legitimately do not know how I survived before I met them. I miss them already and we haven’t even been apart for a month yet, so I plan on taking a road trip to visit some college friends and reconnect.

8. Host a bonfire 

When it’s summer, it’s like this unwritten law that you have to gorge yourself on smores. And where there are smores, there must be a bonfire. There’s nothing more cliche and entertaining than being able to set beside a fire and laugh into the starry night with some of your closest friends on a warm summer night. I personally feel like this item should have a spot on every person’s summer bucket list simply because bonfires are so great.

9. Build my confidence

This is more of a personal goal, one that I have tried to accomplish for years now. I’m not the most confident person, and I want to try to work on that. So, this summer I’m planning on doing enough self-care and affirmation to myself that hopefully I leave the summer just the tiniest bit more confident.

10. Read (at least) two books

I love reading and I think it is always important to continue expanding your mind even when you are not expected to. Also, there are tons of great books out there that I have told myself I am going to read but just haven’t gotten around to it yet. So why not take the time to treat myself to a good book or two?

11. Have a picnic

Picnics are the best. I remember when I was younger, I always wondered why in movies there were always so many picnic dates, but now I completely understand why. I went on one picnic that was supposed to last for about half an hour but I ended up staying there for over four hours. There was something just so serene about being able to eat and chat with some of your closest friends in the shade as you watch everyone else walk by and enjoy the sunshine too. If you’re ever feeling down– go on a picnic. Trust me, the best way to eat a sandwich is to go outside and have to fight off seventy ants while doing so.

12. Go to the beach

Ninky Menjaj said it best when she said “let’s go to the beach beach!” (Please someone get that vine reference). I love the beach, I love the ocean, I love all of the restaurants by the beach, I love being able to wake up and hear waves crashing against the sun. There are just so many things to love about the beach that a summer is never complete without visiting it. Now, here’s to hoping my wallet can handle a trip to the beach.

(Spoiler alert: it can’t).

13. Build the perfect summer playlist

I’m currently in the works of this right now because the key to making amazingly memorable moments is to have the perfect song crooning in the background. But, making the perfect playlist to fit the exciting vibe of summer has started to prove difficult, so if you have any suggestions please share some with me!

14. Go to an Amusement Park

Rollercoasters, funnel cakes, ferris wheels, oversized pizza slices, and water slides. Need I say more? I love amusement parks, and I am lucky enough to have one at a reasonable distance from my home, so I’ll definitely be crossing this one off of my list. There’s nothing better than combining a sugar high with an adrenaline rush, am I right?

15. Go to a music festival

I love music, I love being outside, and I love having an excuse to dress in outrageous outfits. And music festivals somehow are able to combine all of the things that I love into one. Ever since I was little, I always wanted to have a Woodstock-esque experience and be able to sway to some of my favorite songs on a beautiful summer day.

And that’s my summer bucket list. I hope that I can cross all of these items off of my list without breaking the bank, and I’ll be sure to update you guys with my progress!

Be sure to comment below items on your summer bucket list, I want to see what you guys hope to accomplish this season. As always, give me a like and a follow. I am making sure to follow everyone back!

Have a great summer and stay rad–

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Eternally Single

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes pushing a baby carriage. This is supposed to be the general outline of an adult life. 

But what happens if you can’t even find love?

First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes pushing a baby carriage. This is supposed to be the general outline of an adult life.

But what happens if you can’t even find love?

No, I’m serious. What if you genuinely seem to be incapable of loving another person in a romantic way? What if you have spent the entirety of your life being single and honestly don’t see that changing anytime soon? What are you supposed to do, invest in cat toys?

And, as a quick disclaimer, I want you to be aware of the fact that this is in no way me making a half-assed ploy to lure someone into loving me. Because I truly don’t know if I am made for love. This is no way a self-depreciating statement, either. I just honestly find myself to be too independent and too unwilling to let myself fall in love when I have other important things to do like build up my resume, maintain my GPA, and prepare for a future where I can be happy and successful. I’m not writing this to have comments saying “don’t worry, love will come your way soon!” or “Don’t be so hard on yourself! Love will come at the time when you least expect it!”

I haven’t expected love in the last nineteen years of my life, and it hasn’t made it’s advances to me. And honestly, I’m happy with not being loved.

There’s something in my brain that just makes me feel this adverse reaction to love. When someone shows genuine affection or attraction to me, I feel repulsed.

Seriously.

Love repulses me. And that’s like the opposite of what I should feel. So. There’s that.

And, no, I’m not saying that there is not a chance that there might be someone to come into my life and change my entire outlook. There is definitely a chance of that happening, and as I have learned from the great philosopher, Justin Bieber, you should “never say never.” But right now I seriously cannot see myself falling in love.

I feel like I’m at the point of my life where there are so many things up in the air. I mean, I am in the first breaths of being an adult, and I quite honestly don’t think I am a balanced enough of a person to be able to prioritize myself as well as a partner. In this certain era of my life, I have some serious questions to answer. I have to figure out what I want to do as a career, where I want to live, and learn how to manage adult things like taxes and health insurance. And don’t even get me started on how much money it takes to provide myself the bare essentials like food and water and wifi. At this point, I am a minimally functioning adult with a lot of learning left to do. I can hardly take care of myself and keep myself happy. How can I provide for a partner too on top of that?

And I know that having someone to love might release some of my stress, but I just genuinely can’t see myself loving someone. Every time I get emotionally close to someone, I feel consumed with this need to push them away. Also, in this day and age, it is increasingly hard to be a virgin in a relationship. Especially if you don’t plan on losing your virginity anytime soon. But that’s a whole other blog post.

I think at this point in time, I am just confused. Love is confusing. Everyone around me seems to be on the prowl for their future husband. Or for their next lay. But either way neither of those things interest me. And I know everyone says that I will find love when I’m ready, but what if I am never ready?

What if love just isn’t for me? What happens then? Am I destined to live a life that is akin to every Tina Fey movie ever where everyone around me thrives and finds love and I funnel my entire life into my job because it is my only sense of purpose? Seriously, what happens?

Society acts like a woman’s only purpose is to fall in love and have children. But what about the women that are happier being single? Do I have no purpose anymore?

I wish I could find the answers to my questions. But it’s not like you can just go online and say “Hey Google, I am a coldhearted idiot who seems to be incapable of loving. Fix me!”

So, that’s why I’m writing this. Is there anyone else who is eternally single too? Did someone think that they were destined to be single forever but then their soulmate came in and changed everything? Should I try to force myself into dating even though I hate it?

Seriously, what am I supposed to do?

Woes of a Child Prodigy

They told me I was smart, they told me that I was destined for greatness. All because I bubbled in correct answers on a standardized test. I understand that she said those things to motivate me, to push me onto the correct path. But all she really did was put an obscene amount of stress on a child’s shoulders. My teachers, family, and classmates looked at me like I was ‘advanced,’ and I believed it. I took every word that she said to heart and tried to be the prodigy that she painted me out to be.

But what she forgot to forewarn me of is that every human inevitably has to fail.

When I was six years old, I was pulled out of my math class and was told that I was ‘special.’

They talked about my subpar test scores, and for the first time in my life I had the mentality that I was supposed to be perfect drilled in my head. My teacher spoke to me in words that were too large for my young self to fully understand, but I walked out of her small office with an entirely new outlook on life.

They told me I was smart, they told me that I was destined for greatness. All because I bubbled in correct answers on a standardized test. I understand that she said those things to motivate me, to push me onto the correct path. But all she really did was put an obscene amount of stress on a child’s shoulders. My teachers, family, and classmates looked at me like I was ‘advanced,’ and I believed it. I took every word that she said to heart and tried to be the prodigy that she painted me out to be.

But what she forgot to forewarn me of is that every human inevitably has to fail.

Everybody screws up, that is just part of life. But when you are told from a very young age that you are special and above average, failure simply does not seem like an option for you. Any grade that is not a hundred makes you feel like you should be doing more. Any question that you might have should be left unsaid because it is expected of you to understand everything at a faster rate than everyone else. This mentality of expecting for yourself to be better than you actually are makes you spiral quickly into failure.

And when you fail, it feels like you are doing more than just failing yourself. You feel like you have let down your parents, your teachers, and your peers. It’s a harsh fall from superiority to realizing that nothing about you makes you any more special than anybody else. And while it does help you gain perspective about life that every person has something that makes them special in some way, it can still hurt you greatly.

The transition from knowing that you are something special to realizing that you are nothing has caused for an increased spike in teenage depression in the past few years. This flawed system of dividing kids at a young age due to their academic performance has created an environment that builds stress for children on both sides of the spectrum.

Why was there never a lesson where the teacher explained that every person has the capability to be extraordinary, and that academics is not the most important aspect of one’s personality? When will we not feel confined to the labels we were given at a young age?

Being a child prodigy was not easy, especially now that I am an average student at best. But being on the opposite side of the spectrum was not easy for those students either. I get aggravated with myself for not living up to everyone else’s expectations, but I know on the other side that the ones who were labelled as below-average are proud of themselves for not confining themselves to the expectations they had years ago.

I believe that this means that, overall, we should not define ourselves to others expectations. Part of growing up is realizing that you’re going to mess up, but also that sometimes you will succeed. How you performed on a standardized test in first grade does not define the person that you are now, and it shouldn’t.

The only thing that should define who you are is yourself.

An Honest Letter for High School Seniors

As May quickly approaches and the life that you were so familiar with is coming to an end, you can’t help but to ask yourself: what now?

As May quickly approaches and the reality of the fact that the life that you have lived for the last thirteen years is about to end, you can’t help but to worry.
For the majority of your life, you have been told how to feel, how to dress, what to eat, and even when to use the bathroom. You were discouraged from being too expressive, and might have even gotten in trouble for trying to make decisions for yourself. The schooling system is extremely robotic and honestly exhausting, but you cannot help but to feel a crushing wave of fear once you realize that in a few short months you will be released to the world and nobody will be there to control your every move. The prospect of this freedom can seem both daunting and exhilarating.
For the first time in your life, you can get in a car and drive away for hours if you desire to.
For the first time in your life, you can do ‘adult’ things like buying a house, getting married, and having children without having society judge you for it.
For the first time in your life, you get to choose.
And I know people might act like the only option for you after high school is college. Or they might act like you should immediately enter the workforce. Or they might even tell you that you should get married and start a family because you won’t stay young forever. And any of those things are completely valid options and you should consider everything that interests you, but the most important thing that you can do during this time of your life is to do what makes you happy.
I know that you are scared, that you feel like the choices you make at this very moment can determine your entire future. I know that you might feel that you should be doing one thing to make those around you happy even though something else might draw to you more. I know that you are worried about losing the friendships that you have had for years.
And, here’s a secret that nobody likes to tell us. It is absolutely okay to be scared.
Do you think that our parents knew exactly what they were going to do for the rest of their life when they were seventeen years old? Do you think that your grandparents knew that they would one day spending most of their retirement scrolling through Facebook? Do you think that ANYBODY is 100% certain in the decisions that they make?
Of course not!
We are humans. We make mistakes. We do not know the answer to everything. And I know sometimes it might feel like everybody else around you has their life perfectly planned out, but I promise it is not.
Life is a fluid thing. You might think that you are destined to be a teacher in a middle school right now, but when you go to college and you could realize that you despise education classes. Or you might think that you want to immediately go into the workforce, and find yourself six months later googling online classes to be an engineer. Everything can change in the blink of an eye because nothing is ever set in stone. You can be the happiest you ever been on one day and then experiencing your biggest heartbreak the next.
Not many things are in our control, and that just becomes more evident when you graduate high school and are no longer taking part of a daily routine. But the most vital thing that is in your control is your freedom of choice.
Don’t let the people around you make your decisions in life for you. Look inside your heart, find what makes you feel excited, and chase after that.
Are you going to screw up as you navigate through your life? Of course. Everybody does. Are you going to experience moments where you feel like you are lost and alone? Sadly, yes. But those moments are what makes the times when you’re smiling so hard that you feel like your cheeks are going to break so much more worth it.
I know it can be scary to have this era of your life end, but you need to remember that this is not the end of your life. This is simply just the start of your next chapter.

10 Underrated Things About College

This list exists to help ease any anxiety an incoming freshman might feel, but it is also here to remind you that this experience has given people more than they ever bargained for. Even though you’re broke, stressed, and gaining weight– college is a blast. And here is ten reasons why.

College. It has this daunting presence that every person has to toy with the concept of while going through the trials of adulthood. Just the idea of it can spiral a person into a deep hole of anxiety. Whether you are a senior in high school fearing this big transition or even a current college student who has lost sight of why you should put yourself through this stress, it is important that college has so many amazing qualities that most people take for granted.
This list exists to help ease any anxiety an incoming freshman might feel, but it is also here to remind you that this experience has given people more than they ever bargained for. Even though you’re broke, stressed, and gaining weight– it’s a blast. And here is ten reasons why.

1. STUDENT! DISCOUNTS!

Okay. It is a well-known truth that college students are broke. I mean, how can we not be broke? Tuition is stupidly high and don’t even get me started on the outrageous cost of housing and books. But businesses around campus are there to save the day because they give college students hella discounts for everything from tanning beds to Subway sandwiches. I know it doesn’t seem like much, but that 15% off really helps you out.

2. I-N-D-E-P-E-N-D-E-N-C-E

Your parents don’t want you to know this but one of the most amazing things about college is that it gives you your first taste of independence. For the first time in your life you get to dictate your choices in life. You choose your major, your classes, your hobbies, etc. But most importantly, you decide how you live your life. You choose when you go home during a night out. You decide on whether you should buy an $8 pizza or splurge at McDonald’s. Nobody is there to tell you to do your homework or clean your room (even though you should do both.)
You are in charge of your life for the first time ever, and it is a really refreshing feeling.

3. [IT] CAN SHOW YOU THE WORLD

And no, I’m not just talking about studying abroad. While, yes, college does offer you the cheapest (and safest) way to visit other countries, but it also introduces you to so many other things in the world. From new foods, exposing you to new cultures, or even learning about global issues– college offers you an unfiltered view of the world around you. People will offer to take you to everything from museums to hole-in-the-wall sushi restaurants and I cannot stress to you how important it is that you seize these chances. This is the point in your life that you should take advantage of the world at your feet. If you can travel, travel. If you can learn, learn. If someone is giving you a shot to make your life colorful– take it.
College will introduce you to so many new things that will make you go wide-eyed with wonder, but it will also help you garner affection for the place that you came from. This is the best place to gain perspective in life, even though people might not always realize it.

4. Naps are Expected

If you are a high school student, you probably think that this is crazy. I mean, you are somehow able to wake up at 7 A.M, have classes nonstop for eight hours, take part in after school activities, and then do homework without even thinking about stopping to take a good nap. This is an impossible feat for college students. If you don’t crash into a nap at least once a week, you must be a robot. College students probably take more naps than infants do. For some reason that can probably be explained with fancy, scientific words– naps are our fuel. If you can’t nap, then you have to ingest obscene amounts of caffeine.
Naps are little practice deaths, and death is something that college students intimately contemplate (especially during midterms and finals) so you shouldn’t be surprised that napping is the cornerstone of a good college student’s life.

5. Nobody Cares

I know this sounds like a harsh statement, but hear me out.
If you whip into your afternoon class fully dressed in pajamas– nobody cares. If you ride through campus on a bike with a snuggie on– nobody cares. If you answer a question completely wrong or fail a test– nobody cares. Do you understand why this is a good thing? You can mess up, make a complete fool of yourself, and fail miserably and nobody will judge you. The most a person will do if you mess up in front of them is highkey relate to you. All college students have had moments where they royally failed or made a complete idiot out of themselves, and they quite simply don’t have the energy to laugh at you for doing the same thing that they have done before. You can cry publicly because we’ve all been there. You can wear a dog collar to class and the most a person will do is compliment you.
Don’t stress yourself out over the opinions of others because quite honestly everyone else is so wrapped up in their own problems and stressors that they won’t care. Believe me.

6. The Library

Most of the incoming freshman come in with the mentality that they will never be caught dead in the library. But believe me, this place is like a little slice of heaven that has been right under your nose the whole time.
If your roommate is annoying you, you can easily hide in the library for a few hours and enjoy some moments of nice solitude and quiet. If you completely forgot about a paper due at midnight and need to perform some type of miracle and finish it within half an hour, the library is the perfect place to focus and force yourself to be a decent student. If you just want to sit around and drink coffee with some friends and talk about literally anything they will more than likely meet you at the library. If you are in dire need of a nap but don’t feel like going all the way back to your dorm, the library provides surprisingly great naps. Also, the library is like an entirely different world during finals week when people give you free Red Bulls while you suffer a mental breakdown simultaneously with a few hundred other students.

7. You mean I can get a _____ for free? BET.

College is basically a haven for free swag. You can walk past a few tables and leave with an armful of free t-shirts, buttons, pens, and coupons for food. Especially in the beginning of the school year, local businesses love to give out random free things to get some promo, and college students love anything that is free. The amount of buttons and pens that I own solely because they were free is insane. In a stressful world filled with piles of homework and assessments, free things provide a little adrenaline boost that get you through the day.

Also, there are other “free” things (i.e. you paid for it in your tuition so you should use it anyways) that a lot of people don’t take advantage of. Colleges often have health centers for both ill people and also for those who are going through a rough time mentally. There are countless offices available to help those who are struggling with finding jobs, facing difficulties with declaring a major, or maybe even feeling out of place because of their sexual orientation or their ethnicity. Also, go to the gym. You’re paying for it anyways, so combat the Freshman Fifteen by going at least once a week. It also helps to relieve stress.

8. There’s So Much Room for Activities

I know that people often make it seem like you won’t have any time for a social life if you want to get good grades in college. When you’re in the midst of orientation or whatever, some person will without a doubt tell you that you need to spend around 25 hours per week studying outside of your classes. And while, yes, studying is good and you should stay on top of your homework, you are not a robot. If you drive yourself mad dedicating your entire life to studies, then you will inevitably burnout and hit a wall and lose all motivation to try. You have to find a balance between studying hard and also having a social life.
For every person this can vary, your idea of being social can mean spending hours watching countless vine compilations. Or, you might be the type of person who needs to have twenty friends and go out every weekend. And while there is nothing wrong with being either type of person, college is the perfect place to build social connections outside of just having ‘fun.’
There are countless clubs that exist that can cater to any type of interest. From watching movies to practicing leadership skills to even LARPing, I am sure that there is a perfect club out there for you somewhere. If you’re interested in being in Greek Life– do it. If your college does not have the club that you wish to join, start your own! Being a part of a club will make you look so much better when applying for jobs later on. I know you might think that you won’t have the time to be in a club, but believe me, you will. Also, clubs are the best places to make friends.

9. A Whole New Family

I don’t know about you, but my biggest fear coming into college is that I would be alone. I was terrfied that I would be unable to cultivate any friendships. I came in with this mentality that everybody would already be part of an assigned clique like it was high school or something and my toxic mind convinced myself that I was going to spend the next four years locked away in my dorm like a modern-day Rapunzel.
That was not the case. Another secret that nobody tells you about college is that everyone is just as petrified as you are. Everyone fears loneliness and failure and sadness. If you think that you are the only person walking onto campus during move-in day with a nervous knot forming in your stomach, then you are very mistaken. Everybody wants to feel less alone, so they reach out to anybody that crosses your path.
There will be people who sit by you and strike up conversations just because they don’t want to seem alone. There will be people who offer to eat lunch with you. Hell, I found myself inviting a girl that I knew for less than a week along to my grocery shopping trip. There will be people who you think that will be your best friends in the beginning of college who will mysteriously disappear (or drop out) and there will be strangers that turn into family in the span of a week. Something about the atmosphere of college makes it feel like you live a thousand different lifetimes in a month. The friends that you will make will be by your side during your first mental breakdown, real heartbreak, and bad test grade. You will have family game nights and Taco Tuesdays and all of the things that you did not expect to have during college. And when you go home for the holidays, you will find yourself missing your new friends terribly within the span of a few days.
You are going to make friends. And they will change your life better. Trust me on this.

10. The Most Important Thing

Even though a lot of people seem to lose sight of this certain thing that makes college worth the money and the stress, it is undoubtably the biggest reason why anyone decides to work towards getting a degree. What is this thing, you ask? A higher education.
We funnel thousands of dollars towards getting a degree because we are passionate about one thing that we are willing to take hours upon hours of courses about it. Even though you might not come into college being completely sure about what you want to major in, you still want to find what fuels your fire. College is there to give you more experience and knowledge, and you should never forget that your education is extremely vital. Your degree
is what will help you get paid later on in life. Some people never get the chance to go to high school, let alone college. If you are able to receive a higher education, it is a total privilege and you should be thankful that you are able to learn more about your passions.

Welcome to the Real World

Do you have zero idea about what to do with your life? Do you feel like you are letting everyone that you care about down?

Welcome to the real world.

For essentially the first two decades of our lives, we are controlled.

Every thought we have, every meal we eat, every choice we make, hell, every time that we use the bathroom was closely monitored by the adults in our lives. We are told to be independent and strive for greatness, but in the same breath we are reminded that if we break any of the thousands of norms that society has established for us, we fail at life. Everyone from our parents to our peers to our teachers are molding us into this codependent human being that feels trepidation before making any type of decision alone. And if we try to break free and make decisions for ourselves that aren’t traditional, we are immediately berated and forced back into the confines of society.

And we don’t complain, because the confines are the only thing that we know.

Until we reach the magic age of eighteen and everything suddenly transforms into a menacing world of self-sufficiency and major life-changing decisions. It is like as soon as you finish your high school degree, everyone thinks that you should automatically have life completely figured out. You are expected to know which college you want to go to, what major you will have, what career you will do for the rest of your life, where you’re going to live, what person you’re going to marry, how many kids you’ll want, if you will live in the suburbs or in the country, and how to file taxes when just a few months ago your school would not even trust you to go to the bathroom by yourself. How does society not see a flaw in this?

We are forced into being codependent, mindless beings for most of our lives and then the next day we are expected to make some of the biggest decisions that we will ever make. And if you express that you are confused or scared, you get berated because “You’re an adult now. You should just know.”

But how can we know?

It’s not like our high school systems devote that much time to helping students actually preparing for the real world. We weren’t given courses like “Intro to Tax Forms for Dummies” or “How to Not Drown in Student Debt.” Instead, we spent years of our lives memorizing information to regurgitate back onto the standardized tests that (SPOILER ALERT) actually demonstrate very little of the actual knowledge that we hold and will never be applicable to life outside of the classroom.

And I’m not saying that we should attack teachers for how horribly underprepared we are for life. The teachers want to teach us valuable information and wish that they could break away from the rigid goals of the standardized tests. The problem is not the teachers. It’s the people who think that distinguished test scores are more important than fostering young minds to find passions and gain knowledge that will actually make them grow as a person. It’s the people who get angry at students when they try to express individuality and then later on get upset when the same student tells them that they can’t decide what they’re passionate about.

Students are being dehumanized into walking test scores, and not only is it damaging to our minds. But it sets us so far behind when the real world shoves it’s unrelenting presence in our faces. Students that excelled in school find themselves struggling when success is no longer a game of having a stellar memory. The students who fell behind are entering the world discouraged because they’ve spent their whole life hearing that they are simply just not good enough.

When you are already broken down mentally, it is hard to make massive decisions for yourself. And it is even worse to confess to others that you don’t know what you will ever be able to do with your life because you don’t want to fail at being an adult before you have even got started.

But, there’s a bright side to this. If you’re a young adult finding yourself in a similar position to the one that I’m describing, know that you’re not alone. Seriously.

Nobody has a clue about what to do with their lives.

The girl from your high school who has always been so sure about being an Engineer is probably having a mental breakdown and deciding to be an artist instead. The boy who you always just knew would become a lawyer is probably talking on the phone with his mother right now telling her that he wants to go into journalism instead. And your best friend that is currently a biology major? Be sure to motivate her when she starts crying and tells you that she definitely cannot complete the Gen Eds, let alone actually get a degree to be a doctor. We are all going to change our minds at least a million times about the direction that our lives will go. And when we think we have it figured out, it’ll probably change again because life is funny like that.

I know that this sucks right now. That the construction of the school system and society itself seriously needs to be fixed and that it can be seriously discouraging to feel like you can’t answer any of the thousands of questions being hurled your way. But just know that you are not alone in feeling about the world’s biggest idiot and that everyone is going to mess up. Welcome to the real world.

Let’s mess everything up together.